Pet cat attacks Roseville family, 3 taken to hospital

Three Roseville residents and were taken to the hospital Tuesday night after they were attacked by a pet cat.

The three were treated for superficial wounds. The year-and-a-half-old cat - named Khat - clawed the face of its owner's sister, as well as the arms and legs of its owner's mother. It caused deep gashes on the legs of its owner's 10-year-old brother. Khat was taken to the SPCA.

"The cat ran and jumped on his leg and was like, attached to him," the owner said. She and her family asked not to be identified.

"He's never been an aggressive cat, he's never been mean, he just flipped," she said.

The family called Roseville police, which typically directs calls about animals to the city's animal control department. Animal control was closed, however, so the call was directed to the Roseville Fire Department.

It was "absolutely a first for us," Fire Captain Derek Carey said. "We tried to push it into a cage, and it grabbed on to my engineer's boot and turnout bottom and was hissing and going off."

Firefighters threw a fire blanket on the feline and used a metal pole to lure him into a cage, finally trapping the temperamental tomcat.